{"id":447558,"date":"2010-03-19T10:30:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T14:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"tag:consumerist.com,2010:\/\/1.10003467"},"modified":"2010-03-19T01:10:36","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T05:10:36","slug":"comcastic-rebate-card-has-catches-attached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/447558","title":{"rendered":"Comcastic Rebate Card Has Catches Attached"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Jonathan says Comcast disappointed him by giving him a rebate in the form of a Comcast-branded Visa debit card pockmarked with a maintenance fee for inactivity.<\/p>\n

He writes:<\/p>\n

I got my Comcast cable internet hookup rebate, and it’s in the form of a $75 Citibank pre-paid Visa debit card that expires 2\/2011.<\/p>\n

I’m wondering, what’s the catch?<\/p>\n

One big one that was easy to see: A $3\/month account maintenance fee, charged if you haven’t 1) added funds to the account in the last 3 months, or 2) made a purchase in the last 3 months, or 3) if the balance is not $0. The accumulated fee for months 1-12 is applied at the end of the 12 months. Nice way to lose half your rebate, even after you went through the trouble of getting it.<\/p>\n

I’m thinking the common scenario is a card that either isn’t used, or that is used early but not taken down exactly to $0.<\/p>\n

Also, the ‘agreement’ says that if you go below $0, you can be charged a fee per the schedule of fees, but the schedule of fees lists no relevant fees.<\/p>\n

So, what’s my best strategy on how to use this? What traps and pitfalls are there?<\/p>\n

It’s kinda sh**** that, rather than sending a check, they send you this card with all sorts of legal entanglements.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

These rebate cards are becoming all the rage. Consumerists, what do you do to squeeze every last penny out of such tricky minxes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan says Comcast disappointed him by giving him a rebate in the form of a Comcast-branded Visa debit card pockmarked with a maintenance fee for inactivity. He writes: I got my Comcast cable internet hookup rebate, and it’s in the form of a $75 Citibank pre-paid Visa debit card that expires 2\/2011. I’m wondering, what’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4514,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4514"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}